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Gotta love all the swim swam trolls. That site would be a lot less colorful without all the Cal posts. They're like catnip for trolls.

Agreed, and I wanted to address some of the complexities of the NCAA ruling here. Some commenters are upset about the seemingly mercenary aspect (maybe, if they hadn't been paying attention to the ongoing story) and the brand ambassadorship. NCAA's rules are really designed to protect the member universities (read all the regulations linked in the PDF in the above post). The rules are laid out so that an athlete cannot use their athletic affiliation with a member university to personally benefit (this is why the football team's c/o 2017 commit, Poutasi Poutasi, and his extended family's GoFundMe was potentially dangerous). High schools get lumped into this too because the NCAA views them as feeder institutions. However, it seems that in limited situations, if some sort of commercial action was initiated regardless of an individual's intent to eventually profit from their university affiliation, that it can be accepted with some stipulations.

For actual modeling (not brand ambassadorship), look no further than our football team's c/o 2017 commit, Biaggio Ali-Walsh, who got a modeling contract with Wilhelmina based on his family legacy. Maybe you could argue that it had something to do with his athletic ability, but for the rest of his life, he will probably be known as Ali's grandson first, football player second (although we all wish student were second and not third). Looking further out a bit, USC swimming's Santo Condorelli, also a Canadian Olympian, has been posting professional modeling photos on his Instagram --- this gig was clearly initiated just recently and not before he enrolled in college. Is his gig due to his university affiliation? Don't think so, but that's where USC's compliance people are on the ball.

Finally, our favorite Singaporean talking point, Texas' Joseph Schooling, was offered many free gifts, including unlimited flights on AirAsia and rides on some car share service in Singapore for life; supposedly, he was able to get those gifts transferred to his parents and some other designees of his choosing (but that implies that the gifts were his to designate in the first place). Did he and his family benefit from his university affiliation? How is this any different from Auburn's Cam Newton situation? NCAA probably doesn't have jurisdiction over anything happening outside U.S. borders, and doesn't want to anger a P5 member institution (Texas) that otherwise had nothing to do with the Singaporean boosters. It's really complicated (just like all regulation) ....

Albert Gwo -> Columbia?

Originally Posted by UrsusArctosCalifornicus

Number 1 Sprinter in Class of 2016, Albert Gwo, Chooses Cal Bears

Albert Gwo, the top sprinter and number 17 recruit overall in our pre-season rankings of the high school class of 2016, has elected to head an hour north from his hometown of Mountain View, California, to University of California, Berkeley.

Gwo is a senior at Los Altos High School, where he won both sprint freestyle events at the inaugural California State Championships in May 2015. He registered lifetime bests in the 50 yard free (19.90) as well as the 100 (44.60), setting the bar high for subsequent meet record-breaker hopefuls. Gwo went on to great success in the 50 meter free at Junior Nationals; he clocked a 23.12 to finish fourth in that final, and he anchored Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics’ 4x100m free relay with a strong 51.45.

The number one 50-freestyler in the class of 2016, Gwo’s best times include:

Gwo is the first big commit for the Cal men’s team. The Bears have traditionally produced strong sprinters, but with half their NCAA runner-up 200 free relay having graduated (Seth Stubblefield and Fabio Gimondi), they welcome up-front speed to the bench. Gwo will join a deep squad that includes Tyler Messerschmidt, third-place finisher in the 50 free at 2015 NCAAs, Justin Lynch, Kyle Coan, and Long Gutierrez.

As for Albert Gwo, I see no evidence that he is a current student, and therefore not a "grayshirt" and with the deep and talented 2018 recruiting class coming in, I am not counting on him swimming for Cal next year. But I hope I am wrong since he was an early 2017 commit and seemed to embrace being a Bear.

Great to continue to welcome legacy Bears to the team. Young Nate's times to date: 21.26 50 Y free, 45.65 100 Y free and 1:43.07 200 Y free, place him well outside of Pac 12 scoring but as he has only committed to swimming full-time the past two years, his improvement curve is encouraging. His respective times for the 50/100/200 from Dec 2014 are 23.91, 51.88 and 1:51.8. I wouldn't bet against his bloodlines showing up down the road.

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NATE BIONDI SWEEPS SPRINTS AT CIF SOUTHERN SECTION D3 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Biondi, a Cal commit, threw down a 20.27 in the 50 free and a 44.70 in the 100 free to bring home both sprint titles as a senior. Current Photo via Anne Lepesant

JOHNJ: 20.2 and 44.3 (prelims) makes him Cal’s 2nd best incoming sprinter behind Hoffer. Unbelievable improvement in a short amount of time

2FAT4SPEED: Look at those long arms! Kid is going to keep crushing it. Adrian was not much faster before he went to Cal also. I think he was a 20/44/1:37. You could just look at his body and how he swam to see he would be much faster.

Quite nice drops in such a short time. Agree with Dgong that he might even do better with other Cal sprinters. I think I read somewhere that he is coached by his dad Matt Biondi. No?

Longseeker,

Nate currently swims for Canyons Aquatic Club where he was coached by Coley Stickels, who is joining the Indiana staff as an associate head sprints coach.

Cal is pretty loaded at free sprint for 2017/2018 with the addition of Hoffer to returning sprinters Sendyk, Jensen, Josa and Lynch, but he could be an important contributor in 2018/2019 when Justin and Matt graduate, especially if Lileikis is not a part of the program.

It's weird to think of Biondi's kid as an underdog, but he (and Cal) got so much sh*t when he committed last year from all the swimswam haters, it was almost Franklin commitment levels bad. Hope he becomes his own legend here.

Cal is pretty loaded at free sprint for 2017/2018 with the addition of Hoffer to returning sprinters Sendyk, Jensen, Josa and Lynch, but he could be an important contributor in 2018/2019 when Justin and Matt graduate, especially if Lileikis is not a part of the program.

The Canyons Aquatic Club quartet of Nate Biondi, Zander Minano, Tanner Olson, and Adam Osowski combined for a time of 1:33.56 for new 17-18 and 15-18 NAG records in the 200 free relay.

Biondi, a Cal commit, led off the relay with a 23.29. That time matched the qualifying standard for the 2017 U.S. Worlds Trials in less than two weeks, which punches Biondi’s ticket to Indianapolis. He’s brought his best time down from a 24.85 (done in August of 2016) to a 23.29 now in June of 2017.